Karin's Rainbow Gathering 2011 news and ideas for creating a safe, fun and healing gathering in Washington State, July 1 - 7, 2011. As with all things related to Rainbow Gatherings, this is not an official source of information and represents my thoughts and opinions only. Other people will have different ideas. Email me if you wish.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

One of the driving forces behind the gathering is this idea of consensus. Consensus can be formal or informal. Typically at the gathering, things seems to operate on either informal consensus or some combination of formal and informal consensus.

My definition of a formal consensus is when all parties involved come to consensus. At a gathering, this would typically be through a council process in which all people attended. I was at one regional where 99.9% of the gathering participants attended council. Given that all the other gatherings I've been to, council happens with a subset of gathering participants. Therefore I believe that when ever consensus is reached may be considered formal, but if it is honored by other gathering participants, who did not participate in the formal council, at the end of the day we end up with a mismatch of formal and informal.

A really great example of a combination of formal and informal is the site consented to by Spring Council. While all or a subset of people at the Spring Council may participate in the consensus process, it becomes informal when thousands of people honor the consensus by showing up at the site selected.

A strictly informal consensus would be something like don't shit in the creek. I don't know that a formal council has ever reached consensus on this issue, but gatherers at large are pretty much in consensus that shitting in the creek has bad health implications for human and non-human creatures and the ecosystem at large. If some person does shit in the creek or suggest that as an option, gatherers at large would generally take issue with this behavior and take the time to explain to the clueless person why this is a bad idea - thereby bringing the clueless person into the consensus.

All this being said, there is a lot of great things to understand about consensus that can be applied to both formal and informal consensus. I've included some links below. Take the time to enhance your understanding of consensus so you can be of greater assistance to the gathering when you are there. These tools will help in so many ways. I find that ever gathering deepens my understanding of what consensus really means and how to achieve it. I also believe that without consensus there is no peace. If we all can't agree on something, then we will fight. I also don't believe there is a state of perfect consensus as we are constantly negotiating and re-negotiating consensus in small and large ways. It is this process that I love so much about the gathering and which teaches me so much about myself and the world at large.

There are many more resources out there, take the time to educate yourself and then bring that knowledge to the gathering, share it and use it.

Northwest Tribes Lightline

(503) 727-2498

Washington Family Lightline

Forwarded info: For good updated info on info for the Washington state annual gathering of the tribes 2011..please contact the Washington state lightline @ (509)217*6573 between the hours of 10am and 10pm Pacific Time unless it is a emergency!!! or dial 911!!!PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE!! on a side note please do not flood the lightlines with calls for direction to the nationals this will be chosen by consensus at spring council 2011 on june 12th..(site to be announced for that location)..please do not flood the lightlines with directions to holding camps these direction are to be announced very soon as well..please be patient family...i know everyone has rainbow fever..but this is a long process to get our family to the rite place at the rite time...WE LOVE YOU and we will see you soon!

Mailing Address

If you prefer to communicate via snail mail or want to send a few dollars to help with scouting or other pre-gathering related costs:

Washington Rainbow Gathering 2011 P.O. Box 76 Oroville, WA 98844

Rainbow Links

Welcome Home

I try to cover a wide range of gathering specific topics on this blog to help those new to gathering create a safe and positive gathering experience. If I haven't covered a topic on this year's blog, odds are I or a guest blogger covered it in one of the prior year's gatherings. Some of the information will be outdated, but most of the basics will be the same. If there's a specific topic you're curious about, email me and I'll try to cover it or invite a guest blogger to do so.

About Me

Getting into the gathering without getting a mandatory court appearance ticket

GETTING INTO THE GATHERING WITHOUT GETTING A MANDATORY COURT APPEARANCE TICKET

Every year the United States Forest Service Law Enforcement (USFS) Incident Management Team (the cops) attempts to write as many tickets to family coming home as they possibly can to justify their presence. They give out tickets for broken tail lights, failure to use a turn signal in a deserted parking lot at 2 AM, lack of seat belts, controlled substances (even just a trace amount), beads hanging from your rear view mirrors, prescription medications if the label doesn't clearly have your name on it and you can't prove who you are, dogs off leash, a vehicle missing a front license plate even if you live in a state that does not issue a front license plate and a lot more violations of the letter of the law.

However, these tickets are not the type of citation you would probably receive for any of these issues in your hometown. These are mandatory court appearance tickets. There will be special court dates set up just for us, so we can go to the local courthouse, fire station or visitors center and go before a magistrate. In the past, charges have been reduced, fines were often minimal and the court has allowed people to make payment plans ranging from 90 days to pay $75 to 18 months to pay $25 depending on the hardship cases people have expressed.

If you do not show up for your mandatory court appearance on the date indicated on your ticket, a Federal Bench Warrant will be issued for your arrest. Then the USFS LEOs will come into the gathering looking for you. If they find you they will arrest you and put you in jail until the next court date. If this happens on a Friday afternoon, you will be in jail until Monday. If they do not find you at the gathering, the next time a law enforcement officer for any reason stops you, your ID will be run through the database and you will go directly to jail.

Of course, everyone is free to manage this situation as they wish but I strongly recommend you go to your court date. I have seen people charged with crimes that could potentially result in a six years sentence walk out with a $500 fine and three years’ probation. Keep in mind that every year the dynamic is different and these results may not always be available. There are lawyers at the gathering (I am not a legal expert) who attend the court dates and will assist as best they can although I recommend you catch up with them before your court date to gain a better understanding of your specific charges and strategies to get the charges dropped or reduced. If you do not know these people personally, go to INFO and let them know you received one of the magic tickets and you need legal assistance.